WEST LONG BRANCH -- King Rice has a lot of friends in the coaching profession, one of whom happens to be Emanuel "Book" Richardson.

On Sept. 26, the FBI and the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that Richardson, an Arizona assistant coach, along with USC assistant Tony Bland, Auburn assistant Chuck Person, and Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Jones were arrested, along with six others. Money laundering, wire fraud and bribery are among the charges as Arizona has relieved Richardson of all coaching duties.

On Tuesday, Rice, Monmouth University's seventh-year head coach, was asked about the corruption scandal engulfing college basketball, just as so many head coaches across the country have been in recent days as practice gets going. His answer wasn't so much about the scandal as it was about his friend.

"I'm one of those guys that tries to wait until you hear everything," Rice said. "The thing I will say is, "Book" Richardson is my friend. I'm watching a lot of people shoot and talk crazy about a friend of mine, before anybody has all the information. What we seem to forget here is, "Book" has a wife, "Book" has kids, and we're just blasting his name all around, acting like this is a bad guy.

"You watch quickly as the school says they're fired. Well, there's more to it than everyone saying these four guys are killing college basketball. When it's a friend of mine, I'm not going to look at him any differently. I'll do anything to help "Book". He's been a friend of mine for a long time."

A New York native, Richardson has an Oct. 10 court date in front of a United States Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of New York. If found guilty on all charges, he faces up to 60 years in prison.

Richardson had been on Sean Miller's staff for a decade, first at Xavier, then at Arizona, where his reputation grew as an ace recruiter, thanks in part to his East Coast ties and connections.

Rice has known RIchardson for about 10 years, but a friendship formed when Rice was still an assistant at Vanderbilt (2006-11), and Richardson (2009-present) was already at Arizona. At some point, the two were finalists for the same recruit.

"We ended up getting the kid, but it made "Book" and I become closer because we went against each other and had some harsh words, harsh feelings," Rice said. "Two young brothers trying to do well in this business should not be fighting over a recruit, but the business makes you turn into a lot of different things. It almost made me and him get in a fight, and we're friends. If two friends can get in a fight recruiting, let's slow down before we just say these four men are they guys killing college basketball.

"I've seen a lot worse things happen in my life, and I think we're tearing down four men in this game before all the information is out. I know Tony Bland very well, he's a good guy. I don't know Chuck Person. Lamont, I know him, but I'm friends with "Book."

"I look at it and I said, "OK, I made a lot of decisions that weren't the best when I was a younger guy, when I was a single guy." What if I had a family at that time? What happens to the family?"